The Sea Shepherds are a Greenpeace splinter group of self-labeled "eco-pirates" employing "any means necessary" to stop whaling. They branched out though to basically become the "saviors of the seas" targeting seal hunters and any others who activities they deem wrong. The founder of the Sea Shepherds is Paul Watson and he is (or was) the captain of their lead vessel the Farley Mowat (a guy who today looks like he had WAY too much fun in the 60s. Think Captain Kangaroo with a bad hangover). To date, they have rammed and sunk nine ships... yes, you read that right, *nine* ships. Clearly they have lived up to the label of "pirate". Recently the Canadian government boarded and confiscated the Farley Mowat when it failed to yield to coast guard vessels and interfered with the seal hunt. Paul Watson was quoted by Canadian CBCnews as saying:
"It [the Farley Mowat] was always in international waters, and it’s technically an act of war to board a vessel outside the 12-mile [19 kilometres] limit without the permission of the captain."
Captain Watson can't actually believe that anyone is going to sympathize with this bit of legal spin when the Sea Shepherds have been committing acts of piracy for decades and sinking ships on the high seas. To cry "foul" now seems very disingenuous. If you call yourself a "pirate" then I think you better be prepared for the government of some nation to clap you into irons. The chickens have come home to roost for the Sea Shepherds and they don't like it. Kudos to the Canadian government for having the guts to give a good spanking to these hypocrites.
The actions of the Sea Shepherds actually sums up nicely the gross hypocrisy of the far left, be it eco-terrorists, war protesters or any other leftist wackos. The very same people that are protesting the war are cheering and donating money to the Sea Shepherds who are utilizing the exact same violence to enact change they are accusing the Bush administration of committing. What the Sea Shepherds are saying is, it's ok for someone you like to do violence to someone you don't. This is the ideology of the Nazis. They decry the wicked whalers for their violence to the whales while they perpetrate the same violence on their own fellow human beings (which is far, far worse). Violence to solve violence? Isn't this a cardinal no-no for the peacenik crowd? Tsk-tsk. What it does to is expose the hypocrisy of the left. They aren't concerned with the "violence" in Iraq, or the wrongness of war. Instead, they simply don't support *this* violence. When it's violence they support, done by people they like, then they can't get enough, they eat it up, cheer them on and toss money hand over fist into their coffers.The next time you hear one of these hypocrites protesting the iraq war while supporting the terrorist activities of the Sea Shepherds, have yourself a nice chuckle... because the war in Iraq continues (as it should) and the Farley Mowat is docked indefinitely. The Sea Shepherds, are they Nazis with different uniforms? You decide.
